Between 1970 and 2007, I had the privilege of serving seven presidents and their families, observing White House life from a rare behind-the-scenes perspective that few have ever known.
My White House career started as a uniformed officer with the Executive Protective Service, White House Division, which was part of the U.S. Secret Service, serving during the final years of Richard Nixon’s presidency and the beginning of Gerald Ford’s term. I transferred to the Usher’s Office in 1976 and advanced to Chief Usher in 1986, a position I held until retiring in 2007.
During my nearly four decades of service, I observed some of the most triumphant and tragic moments in American history. I was there when President Nixon , when the nation marked its , when the Iranian hostage crisis burdened President Jimmy Carter, when an assassin nearly killed President Ronald Reagan, when the commenced and concluded, and when the incidents of transformed our lives forever. I encountered Popes, Queens, and global leaders; I played table tennis with President Carter and caught a pass from “the Gipper” (Ronald Reagan). I saved first cats stuck in trees and cradled newborn puppies, and I helped coordinate renovations of historic chambers throughout the Executive Residence and the presentation of official presidential portraits. I assisted in locating the perfect container for President Reagan’s jelly beans. I saw First Lady Barbara Bush’s hair inadvertently turn green.
In late July 1999, I recovered a golf ball from a water pipe in the South Fountain. The ball had become stuck in the plumbing during fountain repairs. I mentioned I would inquire with President Bill Clinton whether he had been driving balls in the fountain’s direction.
In 2006, I watched President George W. Bush ride a bicycle around the State Floor. The bicycle was a present from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. It was a novel folding design. The president promptly mounted it and pedaled through the Cross Hall.
These encounters taught me valuable lessons, both major and minor, about national leadership. I discovered that pets, particularly dogs, provide solace to first families, and that meeting the president’s athletic and recreational needs is essential to making the White House feel like a true home. I realized that in challenging periods, we all depend on our cherished family and friends, and that occurrences within the White House can alter history’s trajectory.
Among the numerous historic occasions I observed, none was more moving than the December 1987 visit of Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa to the United States and the White House. The president’s negotiators had reached an accord with the Soviets on nuclear arms. Despite finalized agreements awaiting signature, tensions still ran high, yet when the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was signed in the East Room, I sensed genuine hope for global peace. The most touching moment came after the signing ceremony. The president guided Gorbachev from the East Room to the State Dining Room for a worldwide address. Throughout my White House tenure, this marked the first occasion a fire burned in the State Dining Room fireplace, casting a magnificent radiance and coziness over the solemn addresses by both leaders. As they spoke, I trembled, genuinely feeling that the Cold War was melting away in that personal atmosphere.
People frequently ask what I enjoyed most about my White House position. I immediately answer that it was the opportunity to become acquainted with and engage directly, nearly every day, with the presidents who, as President Kennedy once noted, “were real people who ate and slept and worked and suffered.”
My choice to author a memoir took nearly two decades to materialize, but I hope it will assist Americans in recognizing that the White House is, above all, a residence—the home of the President of the United States. I elected to release my book through the academic press of the White House Historical Association to advance its purpose, as conceived by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, of conserving the White House’s history and the stories of those who have inhabited and served within it.
